Tecnobytes is creating a new batch of GFX9000!

Paragon (1428)

24-02-2016, 16:14

Sorry if there is any other thread with this news already, but I just checked and I do not see any thread related to this, so here I go.

Tecnobytes is creating a new batch of GFX9000 at a very good price.

You can place your order here:

http://tecnobytescc.blogspot.com.es/p/v9990-powergraph-reser...

and then you have to place a pre-payment of 53,50 USD to this paypal address:

ricardo_oazem@yahoo.com.br

In a few hours you will see your name in the pre-order list here:

http://tecnobytescc.blogspot.com.es/p/v9990-powergraph-statu...

The final price will deppend on the amount of units manufactured:

10 units (minimum): US$ 99.00 / EUR 90,00 / BRL 390,00 (each)
11 to 14 units: US$ 94.00 / EUR 85,45 / BRL 370,00 (each)
15 to 19 units: US$ 89.00 / EUR 80,83 / BRL 352,00 (each)
20 to 24 units: US$ 85.20 / EUR 77,37 / BRL 337,00 (each)
25 to 29 units: US$ 83.50 / EUR 75,82 / BRL 330,00 (each)
30 or more units: US$ 80.10 / EUR 72,75 / BRL 317,00 (each)

The list has now 29 names (31 gfx9000) and 7 of those are paid. Since the guys from tecnobytes will only take into account the paid reserves, I am letting anyone know about this so the price can be cheaper.
I am happy that, after a copule of months putting preassure and interest in the spanish MSX community for new developement of a gfx9000, enough spanish people got interested and eventually word came to Tecnobytes ears that there was a potential market for GFX9000 in Spain so they decided to start a new batch. (As you can see, half of the people on the reserve list are Spanish).
I am very eager for GFX9000 to become an standard in the MSX community because I would love to develope games for this amazing hardware and thus, raising the level of future MSX productions.
Since it is very difficult that a new msx generation sees the light any time soon, I belive the GFX9000 + Moonsound is the best way (for now) to level up our MSX hardware and software.

Offcourse this is my humble opinion, and many will not agree, but I am just letting you know this information, in case you are interested.

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Van tvalenca

Paladin (747)

24-02-2016, 17:18

Just to mention: I have mine and it is an incredible product. I wish there were more software for it out there. and i would like to encourage everyone to buy one because the V9990 is too good to leave it unused. Maybe with a bigger public developers would have more interest in coding for it.

Van Kai Magazine

Paragon (1428)

24-02-2016, 17:50

Yes, coders do not bother to code for GFX9000 because there are not enough users with it, and users do not buy it because there is not enough software... It is a loop.
Someone has to break this loop.
If this batch is successfull I will code a few games (perhaps something simple to start) so the loop can start to break.
Since Life on Mars was released, Moonsound demmand is at it's highest (at least that I have ever seen) so if some developers compromise on creating several games I belive the loop can be broken and enough interest can be generated so it becomes an standard.
Regarding fragmentation:
Do not worry, it is as easy as create 2 versions of the game, one for gfx9000 and another for msx2 standard, with some cutdowns, offcourse.
Another option is to do upgrades from existing games.
Konami and other companies did that when the msx2 first came out (king's valley 2, hydlide 3, and many others)
So there are many options, as long as enough users get one.

Van tvalenca

Paladin (747)

24-02-2016, 18:31

One thing that surely would help: having a complete BASIC support. I know there are some libs to support V9990 in ASM, and GBASIC/PowerBASIC support, but I'm talking about the support we have on BASIC 1.0 for TMS9918 and on BASIC 3.0 for V9958. People would see how things could be using V9990 and luckly it will generate some interest on coding for it.

Van Kai Magazine

Paragon (1428)

24-02-2016, 18:31

There is a special basic for GFX9000 which is too slow for z80 but it works nice on turbo r.
There is also an special version of turbo basic for gfx9000 which allows turbo basic coders (like me) to do amazing things. But it has a serious limitation: it leaves very little free memory to code.
I just played with it in the emulator so I do not know if there is a way to get more free ram, etc, but I will look into it once my gfx9000 arrives.

Van tvalenca

Paladin (747)

24-02-2016, 20:06

That's what I've said earlier: (TNI) GBASIC and (Sunrise) PowerBASIC.

The GBASIC (Turbo-R version you mentioned) doesn't support P1 and P2 modes (the modes that offer two planes and 125 sprites) and PowerBASIC (the Turbo BASIC version) doesn't have the Sprites commands implemented.

edit: about the memory issue, I think you can use some tricks to switch page 2 on mapper, using code placed on page 3 to make the switch. Maybe a plugin for NESTOR BASIC could help here, as it already support more memory and have OPL4 support.

Van Kai Magazine

Paragon (1428)

24-02-2016, 20:01

...Are you sure?

I have been checking at the code of this demos made with power basic, and powerbasic handles sprites, as you can see in this video, and the code is showin in this video as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNyfkCnyQXg

Anyway, if I can do all that with powerbasic, I have more than enough to work with :)

Van tvalenca

Paladin (747)

24-02-2016, 20:10

Kai Magazine wrote:

...Are you sure?

I have been checking at the code of this demos made with power basic, and powerbasic handles sprites, as you can see in this video, and the code is showin in this video as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNyfkCnyQXg

Anyway, if I can do all that with powerbasic, I have more than enough to work with :)

http://msxbanzai.tni.nl/v9990/powerbasic.html
It states that the sprites command aren't implemented, but like on regular MSX BASIC, you can do all the work using VPOKE and VDP commands.

Van Kai Magazine

Paragon (1428)

24-02-2016, 20:25

Please look carefully.
Regarding the sprites support it states:

""
ON SPRITE GOSUB
This does not work on the V9990. (It does not have it)
""
PUT SPRITE

PUTSPRITE nr,(x,y),c,pat

nr can be from 0-255, but only 0-124 are real sprites.
x can be from 0-1023 (Also negative values)
y can be from 0-255
pat can be from 0-255
c is not used because V9990 uses multicolor sprites.

PUT SPRITE works in all modes!
Screen 0,1,2,3,4 have multicolor sprites. 0-124
Screen 5-12 have 'cursor' sprites 0-1 (32x32 dots, 1 color)
"""""
SPRITE$
NOT SUPPORTED ! (Will access the VRAM though.)
""""""

It does not support the "on sprite gosub" command, and the "sprite$" command (to define sprites the old fashion way) but it supports full color big size sprites.
Also, in the video I provided before you can see the lists of code, and you will see the sprite commands within the powerbasic code, so do not worry, it supports all the necessary functions to use v9990 sprites

Van mtn

Champion (269)

24-02-2016, 21:29

~~Is the price including or excluding the deposit?~~

nevermind

(Lazy basterd who didnt goto the link provided looks down shamefully.)

Van cklayman

Champion (294)

25-02-2016, 15:28

Sorry for a silly question but I cannot find the detailed system requirements anywhere. Will GFX9000 work with a regular MSX1 computer? Most sources I have looked at concentrate on the Turbo R.